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> World's largest library database reaches billionth milestone
>
> Worthington (Ohio) Libraries
> contributes historic holding in WorldCat
>
> DUBLIN, Ohio, Aug. 12, 2005-WorldCat, the world's richest online
> resource for finding library materials, now contains information about
> where to find 1 billion books, journals, theses and dissertations,
> musical scores, computer files, CDs, DVDs and other items in thousands
> of libraries worldwide.
>
> At 2:21:34 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Thursday, Aug. 11, Anne
> Slane, a cataloger at Worthington (Ohio) Libraries for 23 years,
> entered the 1 billionth holding in WorldCat for the book, The Monkees
> : The day-by-day story of the '60s TV pop sensation. By entering
> this holding information to the WorldCat database, Worthington
> Libraries shows that it owns the book so that librarians, researchers,
> students and other interested readers worldwide know where to find
> what they're looking for in a library.
>
> "We're just thrilled to have reached this milestone in WorldCat," said
> Meribah Mansfield, Director of Worthington Libraries. "I started
> library school in 1971, the same year WorldCat went online, so I feel
> like we've grown up together. I remember library school was all abuzz
> about this great new advance in technology. Now, whenever I see a new
> development in library technology, I think in terms of 'son of
> WorldCat'-or building on the idea of sharing resources that WorldCat
> began."
>
> OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc., the world's largest library
> cooperative, developed a shared cataloging service that first went
> online in 1971. The idea was for libraries in Ohio to share
> cataloging information from one central electronic database, now known
> as WorldCat. The OCLC shared cataloging model revolutionized the
> librarian's workflow and helped make it easy for library patrons to
> find and get the library materials they needed. What was once a
> database shared by libraries in Ohio, grew to a national union
> catalog, and today, is a global library resource used by more than
> 54,000 libraries in 96 countries.
>
> Through WorldCat, libraries share not only cataloging information, but
> library materials as well. If a library does not own a particular
> item a patron is looking for, that item can be located and borrowed
> from another library by using the ownership information on the catalog
> record.
>
> Today, 34 years after going online, WorldCat contains more than 61
> million unique catalog records representing 1 billion items in
> libraries. The Bible, Mother Goose, Huckleberry Finn, and Alice's
> Adventures in Wonderland are among the top 10 titles in WorldCat, and
> together those 10 titles represent more than 1 million items in
> libraries worldwide. On the other end of the spectrum, there are many
> unique items cataloged in WorldCat, treasures held in only one place
> in the world such as a Babylonian temple receipt for cattle and sheep
> used in temple services around 2350 B.C., or a papyrus manuscript of
> an edict issued by Publius Petronicus dating from 22 B.C.
>
> The WorldCat of today is vastly different from that of 1971. Today's
> WorldCat technological platform makes it possible to accommodate
> virtually all languages, formats and scripts. It is now possible to
> load records of entire collections from libraries all over the world.
> And what was once a resource used only by libraries and librarians is
> now available to searchers worldwide using their favorite Web search
> engines. Search engines like Google and Yahoo! make these detailed
> library records universally available.
>
> Librarians have always recognized the value of cooperation in
> libraries, and WorldCat is the product of that kind of cooperative
> effort to serve library patrons.
>
> "Thirty four years ago this month, 54 libraries in Ohio began a
> cooperative effort to build an online union catalog," said Betsy
> Wilson, Chair, OCLC Board of Trustees, and Dean of Libraries,
> University of Washington. "Today, that cooperative effort extends to
> more than 54,000 libraries in 96 countries. On the occasion of the
> one billionth holding symbol being added to WorldCat, I would like to
> thank OCLC member libraries, regional service providers and
> international distributors for their continuing commitment to OCLC's
> public purposes of furthering access to the world's information and
> reducing library costs. Thousands of catalogers and librarians around
> the world have worked together these past 34 years to create,
> keystroke by keystroke, record by record, and symbol by symbol, a
> unique and valuable library resource for knowledge seekers everywhere.
> We have much to be proud of and much to celebrate."
>
> "Passing the one billion mark in holding symbols is an impressive
> example of what long-term focus and collaboration can produce," said
> Jay Jordan, President and CEO, OCLC. "As WorldCat continues to grow
> in depth and breadth, our new technological platform is amplifying the
> power of its information and holdings and facilitating resource
> sharing on a global scale. Groups of libraries can now access
> customized views of their WorldCat holdings. The database now
> supports Cyrillic, Greek and Hebrew scripts in addition to Arabic,
> Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Latin scripts. The general public can
> search WorldCat on the Open Web and be directed to specific library
> catalogs and holdings. Very soon libraries will start to enrich
> WorldCat with reviews, readers' advisories and other full text. In
> short, as we pass the one billion holdings mark, WorldCat will
> continue to become even bigger, better and more accessible. Three
> cheers for WorldCat and the OCLC cooperative!"
>
> About WorldCat
> WorldCat is the world's largest bibliographic database, the merged
> catalogs of thousands of OCLC member libraries. Built and maintained
> collectively by librarians, WorldCat provides the foundation for many
> OCLC services. To watch the WorldCat database grow, see:
> http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/grow.htm
>
> See the top 100 Titles held by OCLC member libraries in WorldCat:
> http://www.oclc.org/research/top1000/complete.htm
>
> About OCLC
> Headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, OCLC Online Computer Library Center is
> a nonprofit organization that has provided computer-based cataloging,
> reference, resource sharing and preservation services to 54,000
> libraries in 96 countries and territories. For more information, visit
> www.oclc.org.
>
>
> OCLC and WorldCat are trademarks and/or service marks
> of OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc.
> Third-party product, service and business names are trademarks and/or
> service marks of their respective owners.
>
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